By Robenson Geffrard, Le Nouvelliste, May 17, 2024
The civil society organizations and political parties involved in setting up the Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) have no intention of allowing the members to lead the transition independently. They never miss an opportunity to oppose and criticize decisions taken by members of the TPC that they consider not to be in line with the April 3 agreement, or those that oppose their interests.
In a memorandum sent this week to the members of the TPC, the Montana Accord Bureau de Suivi (Monitoring Office), a stakeholder in the April 3 agreement, said that following "the failed April 30 elections of the President of the Council a series of difficulties have arisen over how to establish the first moments of the transition and in particular over the absence of the legal and institutional framework that should define the content of this transition, the modalities of its implementation and the clear objectives that the population should expect."
"These grounds for concern risk aggravating the despair of the population, whose confidence, which has yet to be built on the basis of responses to its demands for greater well-being, remains the Transition Executive's main asset if it is to succeed in its mission", the BSA wrote to the members of the CPT.
In this regard, a member of the Presidential Council explained to the newspaper that the April 3 agreement and the draft decree establishing the Council are in the process of being published in the official newspaper Le Moniteur. "We needed to make the necessary changes to the documents after the Council's resolution on the rotating presidency and the 5/7 majority before publication," he told the newspaper.
The Bureau de Suivi believes it is "essential that the Council organize the publication of the decree on the organization and functioning of the [TPC] and re-establish consultations with the other six sectors for the submission of candidacies for the post of Prime Minister, within the framework of the procedure agreed in this preliminary draft decree document, in accordance with the criteria and mechanisms defined for this choice."
The memorandum also calls for the establishment of the National Security Council (NSC). According to the proponents of the Montana Accord, the letter from TPC members to the President of Kenya "constitutes a snag in the April 3 Accord. The CNS's mission is to protect the interests of the population and to ensure that this assistance, beyond the good will of brotherly countries to help Haiti in the fight against organized crime, is not transformed into a force for the violation of the rights of the Haitian nation and people."
In this memorandum, the Bureau de Suivi even proposed a work agenda for the members of the TPC.
Prior to this memorandum, it was the Collectif du 30 Janvier, a grouping of political parties that also signed the April 3 agreement, which had denounced decisions taken by members of the TPC. In a letter sent last week to the President of the TPC, the Collectif stated that it was "deeply concerned by the circulation of a document bearing the signature of the members entitled "Resolution relating to the taking of major decisions". This document states, among other things, that in the absence of consensus, all major decisions of the Council will be taken by a qualified majority of its members, i.e. five out of seven voting members...".
The January 30 Collective, which brings together political organizations such as PHTK, OPL, UNI, GREH, LAPEH and MOPOD, had also denounced the rotating presidency applied by Council members during the transition period. According to this political coalition, Edgard Leblanc Fils, whom they had appointed as representative on the TPC, was to retain his position as President of the TPC until the end of the transition.
The members of the TPC have struggled to run the country since their appointment on April 25.
Translated by CHIP editors
Posted June 8, 2024